An important requirement exists for an instrument that will provide rapid and automatic diagnostic information, for example of cancerous and otherwise diseased tissue. In particular, there is a need for an instrument that would map the extent and stage of cancerous tissue without having to excise a large number of tissue samples for subsequent biopsies. In the current art, the medical profession relies generally on visual analysis and biopsies to determine specific pathologies and abnormalities. Various forms of biochemical imaging are used as well. Unique optical responses of various pathologies are being exploited in attempts to characterize biological tissue as well.
These prior art techniques, however, contain serious drawback as documented in copending application Ser. Nos. 08/510,041 filed Aug. 1, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,364 issued Feb. 3, 1998, and 08/510,043 filed Aug. 1, 1995, now abandoned, which are incorporated herein by reference.
For example, performing a tissue biopsy and analyzing the extracted tissue in the laboratory requires a great deal of time. In addition, tissue biopsies can only characterize the tissue based upon representative samples taken from the tissue. This results in a large number of resections being routinely performed to gather a selection of tissue capable of accurately representing the sample. In addition, tissue biopsies are subject to sampling and interpretation errors. Magnetic resonance imaging is a successful tool, but is expensive and has serious limitations in detecting pathologies that are very thin or in their early stages of development.
One technique used in the medical field for tissue analysis is induced fluorescence. Laser induced fluorescence utilizes a laser tuned to a particular wavelength to excite tissue and to cause the tissue to fluoresce at a set of secondary wavelengths that can then be analyzed to infer characteristics of the tissue. Fluorescence can originate either from molecules normally found within the tissue, or from molecules that have been introduced into the body to serve as marker molecules.
Although the mechanisms involved in the fluorescence response of biological tissue to UV excitation have not been clearly defined, the fluorescence signature of neoplasia appears to reflect both biochemical and morphological changes. The observed changes in the spectra are similar for many cancers, which suggest similar mechanisms are at work. For example, useful auto-fluorescence spectral markers may reflect biochemical changes in the mitochondria, e.g., in the relative concentration of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and flavins. Mucosal thickening and changes in capillary profusion are structural effects that have been interpreted as causing some typical changes in the spectroscopic record.
The major molecules in biological tissue which contribute to fluorescence emission under 337 nm near UV light excitation, have been identified as tryptophan (390 nm emission), chromophores in elastin (410 nm) and collagen (300 nm), NADH (470 nm), flavins (520 nm) and melanin (540 nm). However, it should be noted that in tissue, there is some peak shifting and changes in the overall shape relative to the pure compounds. Accordingly, the sample can be illuminated with a UV beam of sufficiently short wavelength and record responses from the above enumerated wavelengths of light in order to determine the presence of each of above identified contributions to tissues types.
It has been further shown that hemoglobin has an absorption peak between 400 and 540 nm, while both oxyhemoglobin and hemoglobin have strong light absorption above 600 nm. Blood distribution may also influence the observed emission spectra of elastin, collagen, NAD, and NADH. Further compounds present in tissue which may absorb emitted light and change the shape of the emitted spectra include myoglobin, porphyrins, and dinucleotide co-enzymes.
A general belief is that neoplasia has high levels of NADH because its metabolic pathway is primarily anaerobic. The inability of cells to elevate their NAD+:NADH ratio at confluence is a characteristic of transformed cells related to their defective growth control. The ratio of NADH+:NADH is an indicator of the metabolic capability of the cell, for example, its capacity for glycolysis versus gluconeogenesis. Surface fluorescence has been used to measure the relative level of NADH in both in vitro and in vivo tissues. Emission spectra obtained from individual myocyte produces residual green fluorescence, probably originating from mitochondrial oxidized flavin proteins, and blue fluorescence is consistent with NADH of a mitochondrial origin.
Collagen, NADH, and flavin adenine dinucleotide are thought to be the major fluorophores in colonic tissue and were used to spectrally decompose the fluorescence spectra. Residuals between the fits and the data resemble the absorption spectra of a mix of oxy-and deoxy-hemoglobin; thus the residuals can be attributed to the presence of blood.
Alfano, U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,516, teaches the use of luminescence to distinguish cancerous from normal tissue when the shape of the visible luminescence spectra from the normal and cancerous tissue are substantially different, and in particular when the cancerous tissue exhibits a shift to the blue with different intensity peaks. For example, Alfano discloses that a distinction between a known healthy tissue and a suspect tissue can be made by comparing the spectra of the suspect tissue with the healthy tissue. According to Alfano, the spectra of the tissue can be generated by exciting the tissue with substantially monochromatic radiation and comparing the fluorescence induced at least at two wavelengths.
Alfano, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,494, teaches a technique for distinguishing cancer from normal tissue by identifying how the shape of the visible luminescence spectra from the normal and cancerous tissue are substantially different.
Alfano further teaches, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,398, the use of luminescence to distinguish cancer from normal or benign tissue by employing (a) monochromatic or substantially monochromatic excitation wavelengths below about 315 nm, and, in particular, between about 260 and 315 nm, and, specifically, at 300 nm, and (b) comparing the resulting luminescence at two wavelengths about 340 and 440 nm.
Alfano, however, fails to teach a method capable of distinguishing between normal, malignant, benign, tumorous, dysplastic, hyperplastic, inflamed, or infected tissue. Failure to define these subtle distinctions in diagnosis makes appropriate treatment choices nearly impossible. While the simple ratio, difference and comparison analysis of Alfano and others have proven to be useful tools in cancer research and provocative indicators of tissue status, these have not, to date, enabled a method nor provided means which are sufficiently accurate and robust to be clinically acceptable for cancer diagnosis.
It is quite evident from the above that the actual spectra obtained from biological tissues are extremely complex and thus difficult to resolve by standard peak matching programs, spectral deconvolution or comparative spectral analysis. Furthermore, spectral shifting further complicates such attempts at spectral analysis. Last, laser fluorescence and other optical responses from tissues typically fail to achieve depth resolution because either the optical or the electronic instrumentation commonly used for these techniques entail integrating the signal emitted by the excited tissue over the entire illuminated tissue volume.
Rosenthal, U.S. Pat. No. 4,017,192, describes a technique for automatic detection of abnormalities, including cancer, in multi-cellular bulk biomedical specimens, which overcome the problems associated with complex spectral responses of biological tissues. Rosenthal teaches the determination of optical responses (transmission or reflection) data from biological tissue over a large number of wavelengths for numerous samples and then the correlation of these optical responses to conventional, clinical results to select test wavelengths and a series of constants to form a correlation equation. The correlation equation is then used in conjunction with optical responses at the selected wavelengths taken on an uncharacterized tissue to predict the status of this tissue. However, to obtain good and solid correlations, Rosenthal excises the tissues and obtains in essence a homogeneous sample in which the optical responses do not include the optical signatures of underlying tissues. Rosenthal's methods, therefore, cannot be used in vivo applications as contemplated in the present invention.
In studies carried out at the Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine, using a single fiber depth integrating probe, Schomacker has shown that the auto-fluorescence of the signature of human colon polyps in vivo is an indicator of normality, benign hyperplasia, pre-cancerous, and malignant neoplasia. See Schomacker et al., Lasers Surgery and Medicine, 12, 63-78 (1992), and Gastroenterology 102, 1155-1160 (1992). Schomacker further teaches using multi-variant linear regression analysis of the data to distinguish neoplastic from non-neoplastic polyps. However, using Schomacker's techniques, the observation of mucosal abnormalities was hindered by the signal from the submucosa, since 87% of the fluorescence observed in normal colonic tissue can be attributed to submucosal collagen.
Accordingly, there is a need for a more effective and accurate device to characterize specimen, and particularly in vivo specimen which will obtain responses from well defined volume elements within said specimen, and present data automatically from a relatively large area comprising a plurality of such volume elements. Furthermore, there is a need for methods to automatically interpret such data in terms of simple diagnostic information on said volume elements.
In the aforementioned applications, Ser. Nos. 08/510,041 and 08/510,043, Modell, DeBaryshe and Hed taught the general principles of obtaining valuable analytical data from a volume element in a target sample by using spatial filters with dimensions that are generally larger than the diffraction limits for the wavelengths of the probing radiation. Such spatial filtration is obtained by an optical device including an illumination and a detection system both containing field stops and the field stops being conjugated to each other via the volume element to be analyzed, providing in essence a non imaging volume microprobe.
While the family of devices described in the aforementioned application are very useful in the analysis of a plurality of points within a target sample, there is a need to easily and automatically obtain such data on a full array of points so as to convert these data to an artificial image of the analytical findings over a large area of the sample. This is particularly important when heterogeneous samples, such as biological samples are examined with the non imaging volume microprobe. For instance, when examining tissues to determine the presence or absence of oncological pathologies, or other pathologies, visual techniques are followed, in some cases, by the resection of biopsy specimen. Such techniques are naturally limited in that the physician eye can only assess the visual appearance of potential pathologies, and the number of biopsies taken is by necessity limited. The appearance of pathological tissues does not provide information on the depth of the pathologies, and cannot provide positive diagnosis of the pathology. Furthermore, since biopsies are carried out ex vivo, a time lag between the taking of the biopsy and obtaining its results cannot be avoided. It would be very useful for physicians to have a device capable of performing such diagnostic tasks in vivo and to obtain differential diagnostics (between healthy and pathological tissues) while performing the examination. This is particularly important when performing exploratory surgical procedures, but can be very useful when examining more accessible tissues as well.
A number of devices have been described in the prior art relating particularly to confocal microscopy where illumination and detection arrays are provided. For instance, a confocal scanning microscope in which mechanical scanning of the illuminating and the transmitted (or the reflected) beams is avoided is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,008. A light shutter array is used to provide synchronous detection of a scanned light beam without the need to move a photodetector to follow the scanning beam, and each of the shutters is serving, in essence, as a field stop in the confocal microscope. In other embodiments, two overlapping arrays of liquid crystals are used as optical shutter arrays to attempt reduction in the size of the field stops. As is well known in the art of confocal microscopy, in order to obtain the desired resolution afforded by this technique, the dimensions of the field stops need to be small relative to the diffraction limit of the optical beam used in the system. Other embodiments also provide for two sets of field stops, conjugated within the sample, one set for the illuminating beam and one set for the transmitted or reflected beam. While this patent teaches the use of electronic scanning of the illumination and response beams, the illumination intensity and response signal strength are drastically limited due to the use of dual liquid crystal optical shutters required to achieve the pin-hole effect of a scanning confocal microscope.
Another confocal imaging device is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,802, where a microlaser array provides a flying spot light source in a confocal configuration. Similarly U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,178 provides for an illuminating grid for essentially the same purpose, except that light emitting diodes are used for the grid's light sources. These approaches, however, are limited to monochromatic illumination and are usable only with relatively long wavelengths at which solid state laser diodes and thus microlaser arrays or light emitting diode arrays are available.
None of these devices provide for an array of non-imaging volume microprobes. Accordingly, there is a need for a device comprising an array of non-imaging volume microprobes in which a plurality of volume elements in a sample can rapidly be scanned in order to obtain diagnostic or analytical information over a relatively large area of the sample without integrating the data from all the sampled volume elements.